#normal il

When I show you McLean Stevenson’s birth announcement from 1927.

Diamond Tourist Camp on Route 66 near Bloomington, Illinois, as seen in a picture postcard from the 1930s.

B/W Photo – Normal, IL 1974

Image by kenne Over the many years of interest in photography, I rarely shot black & white photos. However, this is one I recently rediscovered (thanks to Mary Ann). The date was around 1974. The location is the front yard of our home in Normal, Illinois. The camera is (I still have it.) a Canon FTb QL. I have no idea about the setting, but it is reasonable to say a very slow shutter speed with a…

Join us at Play Normal eSports on January 26th at 5 pm for PlayNormal eSports' first Counter-Strike Competition. 

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$10 Venue free + $5 Entry fee for each team member Prize

 1st wins 75% prize pool. 2nd earn 25%

Set up and check-in starts at 5 pm at the location. The first match will start at 6 pm. Single elimination bracket. Seeds will be based on the average rank of the team 

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Grassroots Activism in Illinois and My Lens

I took the above photos at seven different rallies and protests in Kankakee, Ill., Bloomington and Normal, Ill., and Springfield, Ill. from 2016-2018 as both a member of the media and an American citizen. Folks attended each rally for a different reason, motivated by different social issues.

The pink glove on the fence and the “It’s a man’s world..” photos were taken at the Women’s March in Springfield on the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. There were rallies across the nation this day, with 600,000 people turning out for Chicago’s march in Grant Park. The purpose of the Women’s March, especially in Illinois’ state capital, was to push for registered voters to vote women into office for the upcoming election. Speakers included poets, singers, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, State Sen. Andy Manar and a young girl that identifies as a Dreamer through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).

I attended this rally as an Illinois resident, not on behalf of a media outlet. During this rally I particularly paid attention to the intersectionality and representation of ALL women. Black, white, Latinx, Arab, disabled, LGBTQIA+, undocumented, Asian, refugees… A Women’s March shouldn’t focus on just the white agenda, which usually compromises of equal pay and abortion. There are so many conversations we should be having on behalf of all women. My expectations rang true, and the rally was amazing. I felt empowered with my friends, and I was satisfied with the turnout of a smaller rally. Representation was missing during the Women’s March after the president’s inauguration, and I think a conscious effort to fix that was achieved.

The third photo of a young boy holding a multicolored sign was taken after a rally hosted by the Not In Our Town chapter in Bloomington-Normal, which works to ward off hatred and racism and create a welcoming environment for people of color in the twin cities. The sign the boy is holding reads in English, Spanish and Farsi. It says: “No matter where you’re from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.” This sign was created and distributed following the president’s travel ban he imposed toward the beginning of his presidency that restricted travel from several majority-Muslim countries. Several members of the Bloomington City Council, Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan University professors, and other prominent activists spoke to a packed audience at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts to declare Bloomington a safe, welcoming city for families of all backgrounds regardless of action on the federal level.